Jasmyne Tea

Upside-Down Sticky Banana Cake

This cake is a thing of beauty. Disillusioned by years of average banana cake, I didn't think I could get excited over it again until I tried this recipe. The cake itself is fluffy and gorgeous, the bananas turn out golden and beautifully caramelised on top, and the caramel topping slowly permeates through the whole cake if you leave it long enough. Served warm with a dollop of ice-cream, you might find your faith in banana cake restored as well.

Upside-Down Sticky Banana Cake
Recipe received from my SIL Melissa

INGREDIENTS

Cake
180g self raising flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 medium ripe banana
2 tbsp sour cream
2 large eggs
180g brown sugar
90g unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping
60g unsalted butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 large, just-ripe bananas

To Serve
vanilla ice-cream

 

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C, fan forced, and grease a 23cm round cake tin. Set it aside.

2. Make the caramel topping by melting the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat and adding the brown sugar and salt.  Stir occasionally for a few minutes or until glossy, then take off the heat. Pour caramel into the prepared tin, coating the bottom evenly.

3. Peel and thickly slice the bananas, and place the slices into the bottom of the tin, covering as much of the caramel as possible. Set the tin aside.

4. Mix together the flour, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mash the banana and then mix in the sour cream.

5. In a third bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until fully combined, for about 2 minutes. Add the butter and vanilla and mix for another couple of minutes (if you have a food processor, use it!). Add the egg mixture to the banana mixture and stir to combine. Then add this mixture to the flour bowl and mix thoroughly.

6. Carefully pour the cake mixture over the banana slices in the cake tin, and bake for 40-45 minutes until the cake is golden. Cake should spring back when pressed gently in the centre.

7. Remove cake from oven, and leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes. Carefully run a knife around the edges of the cake, then place a serving plate over the tin and flip the tin and the plate over. Leave the tin upside-down on the plate for 30 seconds, then gently lift the tin. Let the cake cool for 5 minutes or so, then serve with ice-cream.

El Loco, Surry Hills

I both love party season and hate it. Of course, going out and seeing my friends, eating good food and drinking good wine are all wins in my book, but it all comes with the hassles of trying to find a way home when the designated driver has had one too many, and it leaves a big dent in my bank account after a while.

So when yet another birthday rolled around, I suggested a bar a little less expensive than usual, yet still vibrant and interesting - and with awesome food: El Loco, in Surry Hills.

El Loco is a Merivale restaurant, but it doesn't have the posh, unapproachable air of the other restaurants and bars, so when the three of us turned up one Saturday, we felt right at home. We snagged a table right away and set about ordering.

Pink Cuco - $13.50
Classic Margarita - $13.50

We started off with drinks. Elain ordered a Classic Margarita, which included a good dash of Herradura Blanco tequila and zesty Cointreau. It was fresh and zingy and probably the best margarita I've ever sampled.

My Pink Cuco slushy was a tad more complex: El Jimador tequila was mixed with pink grapefruit and lime juice, and finished off with a ginger and coriander syrup. I was so enamoured of this drink that I ordered two more before the end of the night.

Corn Chips with Guacamole and Salsa - $5.00

The thing I love about El Loco is that a lot of items on the menu are five dollars. With that five dollars you can order a healthy serving of thick corn chips with a creamy guacamole and salsa with a bit of a kick. It's a great bar snack, and we munched on these as we waited for the rest of our order.

Crispy Fried Barramundi Taco - $5.00

Carne Asada Taco - $5.00

The tacos here are all soft-shelled and jam-packed with fillings. We chose one of the specials, a crispy barramundi taco topped with salsa verde and smooth queso - it was chock full of different textures and the flavours were perfectly balanced. The Carne Asada taco included lemongrass beef that was slightly tough but redolent with the fresh, zesty lemongrass, and pico de gallo, a zingy salsa.

Market Grilled Fish - $15.00

The fish of the day happened to be some sort of snapper, which was grilled to perfection. The flesh was tender, which really showed against the crispy skin, and the freshness was accentuated with a beautiful salsa verde. Served with a shaved fennel, cabbage and coriander salad on an oddly floral plate, it was a great meal.

Quesadilla with Chorizo, Jalapenos and Chipotle Mayo - $5.00

Now this quesadilla was SPICY! Stuffed with chorizo, jalapenos and a smoky chipotle mayonnaise then toasted, there was no way I was able to finish it (I'm a light weight when it comes to spice though).

Secret Taco - $5.00

The server wouldn't tell me what was in my secret taco, even after I'd eaten it, so I'm not really sure what it was. It's normally offal and changes daily. My mystery meat rested atop a pile of cabbage and was smothered in a tart pico de gallo salsa, and it was quite tender and slightly gamey.

Churros with Orange Dulce de Leche - $5.00

I thought that each serving of churros would be just enough for one person, so I ordered three serves. What came out were nine massive columns of dough, accompanied by a sweeter-than-sweet dulce de leche spiked with orange syrup. It was delicious, but we had to take half of it home.

If you're looking for a place to chill, with great food and even better drinks at a reasonable price, then I'd definitely recommend El Loco.

El Loco

http://www.elloco.com.au

64 Foveaux Street
Surry Hills
NSW, 2010

Phone: 02 9211 4945

The Worst Meal I Ever Had

Ok, I have to admit that there have been some disgusting things in my mouth.

(I'll just wait for you to pick your mind back up out of the gutter before I continue.)

I've eaten dirt; I've almost swallowed an insect; I've even had a shot of soy sauce straight from Green Valley's Golden King 2000, which most locals will know is an impressive feat considering it has been sitting on the tables there for at least 20 years, and has the consistency of tar.

But this is by far the worst thing I've ever tasted:

It's called Uncle Chin's chicken rice. I don't know who Uncle Chin is or why he's cooking my food, but he is clearly a sadist. The "chicken" was dry and had the texture of overdone pork, while still retaining the chewiness under the skin that is undercooked fat. The rice disintegrated at the slightest touch. We were on a 10 hour flight with a 5 hour stop over.

I ordered some pringles and ribena and decided to eat at the KL airport.

I had always thought people complaining about plane food were just exaggerating - I'd only ever flown Qantas and Virgin, and the food was pretty decent. I was wrong.

Well, thank you AirAsia for proving the myth of Plane Food true. Anything you can do about Loch Ness?

Share your worst plane food stories below, so I can feel better with the fact that people are in the same boat - er, plane.